More than 100 representatives from manufacturing and industrial enterprises have joined a lead-poisoning prevention programme at Bjemina Industrial Estate in Thimphu. The 23 October event brought businesses into Bhutan’s child lead-exposure response, with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF Bhutan jointly organising the programme.
The participants represented small and medium-sized enterprises making bricks, furniture, fabricated products, windows and glass items. It was the first time representatives from these industries had been engaged in the country’s lead-poisoning prevention work. The programme was held during International Lead Poisoning Prevention Week and focused on risks to children’s health and development.
Testing and prevention at the industrial estate
Participants considered products and items that may contribute to children’s exposure to lead, as well as practical ways to reduce exposure at home and at work. The discussions included the safety of commonly used cookware and the role of workplace and household prevention in protecting families.
Work equipment and personal jewellery brought to the event were tested for lead content. All of the items tested were found to be lead-free. That result applies to the equipment and jewellery examined during the programme; it is not evidence that every product, workplace or household in the area is free of lead hazards.
The meeting also considered stronger market monitoring and surveillance, alongside closer collaboration between government bodies and industry. The immediate significance is the formal involvement of businesses that make or handle everyday products, rather than a finding that the national level of exposure has already fallen.
A continuing child-health concern
Bhutan’s first National Blood Lead Level Survey, carried out in 2024, found unsafe blood lead levels in 76 per cent of young children. The survey also detected elevated levels among women and children living in monastic institutions. The figures set out the scale of the concern, but they do not identify one single source of exposure for all those affected.
Lead is highly toxic and can cause irreversible harm to children’s developing brains and nervous systems. Young children are particularly vulnerable because their bodies absorb lead more easily than adults. Bhutan has already expanded testing and surveillance, trained more than 300 primary health workers on environmental health risks, and provided equipment and supplies to strengthen monitoring capacity.
Separate blood-lead assessments have also been conducted over five weeks among sick children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and adults considered most at risk. The work is intended to improve the evidence available for clinical care and wider prevention measures.
Policy and clinical measures still under way
Bhutan’s National Lead Poisoning Prevention Strategy has been endorsed by the Office of the Prime Minister. A national framework for the prevention and control of lead exposure is awaiting Cabinet approval, while clinical guidelines for managing lead poisoning are being finalised.
Once the clinical guidelines are endorsed, chelation therapy is due to be introduced at Jigme Dorji Wangchuck National Referral Hospital for people with elevated blood lead levels. Those steps remain prospective or in progress, so the Bjemina programme should be read as part of a wider response rather than as a completed solution.
By bringing industrial representatives into the process, the Thimphu event adds a workplace and product-safety strand to Bhutan’s existing work on detection, surveillance and public awareness. The next tests will be whether the pending framework and clinical guidance are approved, and how prevention measures are put into practice across homes, markets and workplaces.
